Extracurricular activities and educational ouctomes: evidence from high-performing schools in St Petersburg, Russia

ABSTRACT

This article is based on a survey carried out among 2,428 ninth-graders from 64 high-performing schools in St. Petersburg, Russia. In the study, we examine the relationships between socioeconomic background, extracurricular participation, and educational outcomes. The findings demonstrate high levels of participation in out-of-school, compared to school-based, extracurricular activities. Extracurricular participation was also shown to be associated with better grades and, to some extent, with higher levels of university aspirations. The relatively small estimate sizes indicate, however, that extracurricular participation is not a major factor in differences in educational outcomes. Nevertheless, since participation was higher among socioeconomically more advantaged students, and grades and/or levels of university aspirations were higher among those who participated, we argue that extracurricular participation should be understood as part of social reproduction in Russia.

KEYWORDS:

• Extracurricular activities
• educational performance
• Russia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. To distinguish grades as self-reported performance measurements from grades as levels of schooling, we consistently specify the latter (i.e. ‘ninth grade’).

2. Professional standards for licensed ECA organizations were introduced in 2015 and were aimed at transforming management practices prevalent in formal schooling into out-of-school extracurricular education.

3. At the moment of data collection, the exam consisted of several disciplines – two obligatory (Russian language, mathematics) and several elective (including chemistry, foreign languages and social sciences). The numbers of obligatory and elective subjects have varied over the years.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Östersjöstiftelsen [2199/3.1.1/2014].

Notes on contributors

Zhanna Kravchenko

Zhanna Kravchenko is Associate Professor of Sociology at the School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University. She has earlier published about various aspects of inequalities and welfare states, transition to adulthood and educational reforms, as well as about civil society in Russia and other countries, often from a comparative perspective.

Olav Nygård

Olav Nygård PhD in Sociology, is researcher and lecturer at Linköping University and Södertörn University. His research focuses on inequalities in educational opportunity, outcomes, and aspirations, and on the roles of institutions and social networks in shaping these inequalities.